Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-09-14
BOWDOIN COLLEGE.
Lively Sc enes at the Opening of the Term.
The Largest Freshman Glass for Years.
Especial correspondence of Kennebec Jour
nal.

Especial correspondence of kennebec Jour
nal,
BRUNSWICK, Sept l3.
To-day has been very lively one on the
Bowdoin campus. The students are return
ing to college after the long vacation to enter
with renewed energy upon the duties of
another year. 1t is an animated
crowd of young men, who are throng-
ing in and out of the large domtories.
and hurrying back and forth to recita
tions. Everything about the college looks
neat and clean. The buildings have been
put in thorough repair and are resplendent in
new coats of paint The trees and hedges
have been neatly trimmed, and everything
about the cumpus put in complete order to
welcome old students, and also one
of the largest entering classes for years.
Fifty members of 81 are now on the ground
and several others are expected in the course
of few days. The day has been one of
salutation and preparation. Old friendships
are being renewed and new ones formed
friendships that in most cases will outlast
the days of college life, to brighten and
strengthen the ways of maturer years. Col
lege rooms are being renovated and
furnished. and the merchants of the
town and the segacious Solomans who
have laid in store of second hand furniture,
are doing rushing business. Every room
in the college buildings is taken, and num-
Der of new comers have been obliged to
avail themselves of the excellent boarding
places to be found near the compus in private
families.
Your correspondent was fortunate enough
to meet President Hyde as he was coming
out of the chapel at the close of the morning
prayers.
.'The year has indeed opened very auspic-
iously for US" he said.
"The entering class is one of the largest
for years, and we expect several more later
on" and then he hurried away with that
quick elastic step which so clearly indicates
the vigorous character of the man. BowdoiD
made no mistake when she called this big
Drained big-hearted man to her presidency.
All who have come in contact with him have
felt the force of his pure independent char
acter and wide culture. Under his energetic
management the college is making rapid
strides forward in the direction of liberal and
progressive education. Important changes
have been made since the last year both in
the faculty and in the curriculum. Tie
coming year promises to be one of the most
successful in the history of the college
A new ranking system has been adopted,
which is undoubtedly one of the best schemes
for keeping scholarship records which has yet
been invented. Under it faithful students
who attain a certain degree of excellence in
their studies are entitled to ''frst rank"
instead of being regulated to the "quarter"
of the class in which their reiattre standing
would place them, and which is very misleading
inasmuch as a very small PERCENTAGE of differ
ence in rank might place one
student in the first and another in the fourth
quarter of q class nearly evenly matched in
scholarship. Under the new system it is
possible for every man in q class to
secure ssfrst rank" if the work of all were
sufficiently good to entitle them to the re-
quired percentage. 1t is in all respects
most admirable system and under it the
parents of no student need be mislead as to
the quality and quantity of the work he is
doing.
The entering class is a clean cut robust set
of young men gathered from the best homes
of this and other states and will doubtless
prove worthy of the venerable institution
which has honored them with membership.